I do not know if you are aware that you can alter your DVD player to be able to play any region DVD@s it is very simple, you just need to enter specified numbers into your remote control.

you can access the model and numbers required by looking on Google. Enter how to modify your DVD Player to Multi Region. A list of makes and model numbers will appear, and you look up the dtails of your player, which will give you the numbers to use. It is very easy and works.
Good Luck and Happy Viewing.

Thank you Nanarina. I will try what you have suggested before I try to buy a new DVD system..

Another way to find the 'trick' to making your dvd player multi-region is by searching on Amazon for your player -- then check the comments section. It's a bit of work, but it's worth it.

I just bought a great dvd player, not expensive at all, and the codes posted by other reviewers were a big help (and also helped me decide to purchase it). I also always run my electronics purchases by a trusted, techy friend who relishes being the go-to person!

Will a PAL dvd play in my computer? I had an NTSC dvd that (of course) wouldn't play on a PAL monitor (though I think the player itself was either NTSC or multi-region) but when we tried the computer, it worked ok. So back to the original question, will a PAL dvd play on my US computer's dvd player?

If it's a region-free disc, then yes. But if it's a region 2 or 5 disc, then probably not, unless you reset your computer to that region. (I have friends whose laptops are reprogrammed to play region 2 discs to complement their region 1 DVD players. I think they'd be better off with a region-free player; it's made my DVD shopping easier.)

Curiously, I'm able to play region-free PAL discs in my portable player, though technically it's a region 1 machine.

The issues of regions and NTSC/PAL/SECAM concern two different things in the audiovisual setup. The first refers to code restrictions (software) and the other to display modes that is more of a hardware issue. Most of the Go Video players sold in the US have a secret menu that allows one to change the player to play disks from all regions. Unfortunately, for an NTSC player to play a PAL video (or vice versa) one requires that the DVD player to have a chip capable of converting the PAL signal to NTSC in order to output it to a NTSC television. Rarely do televisions have that video conversion chip hence the focus on DVD players here.

Computers do not have that restriction - one can play whatever one likes. HOWEVER, keep in mind that modern computers have a restriction of the number of times one can change the region setting - 5 changes and it will be set to whatever region it was changed to last. There are a few solutions, flash the firmware of the DVD-drive so that it also becomes region-free, or find an application that shields the region code of the DVD if the disk and player are on different regions. I believe VLC in both Windows and Mac OS X have options to do so.

There are also more illegal options (thanks MPAA) but I won't delve into it.

emi